Epic
''Epic ''is the debut studio album by American recording artist Rachel Woods. It was released on April 24, 2012, by Fach Records and debuted atop of the US Billboard 200. With this album, which had "Superficial" as its lead single, Woods wanted to show girl power on every track of it. The album had a bubblegum pop feel to it and its major hit was "On Top of the World", which made people really see Woods as a singer. During the promotion of Epic, ''Woods tried to leave behind her explosive and sincere side, and work on a more mature image. '''Background' After the success of four promotional singles for fragrances, clothing lines and more, Woods felt the need of growing on the music market, even because of the fans pressure who were asking for an album since 2009. After almost three years of wait, Woods decided to dedicate herself to dancing and singing classes, to develop her debut album Woods signed a recording contract with music label Fach Records, which supported her big time and invested much money on her, connecting the singer with many important music producers like Dr. Luke, Stargate, and Max Martin. Release Epic ''received a good promotion and had a total of 4 music videos. Woods promoted the album on TV shows, festivals, award shows and even went on her first tour. The tour was a marketing stunt made by Fach Records, where they didn't reveal the artist who would be performing, released the dates and the name, which was Secret in the Box Tour. Minutes before the show started people didn't know who would be performing. To boost the album sales, Fach included the previously released promotional singles "Bombastic Love", "Never Falling", "My BFF" and "Party All the Time" as bonus tracks on the album. '''Singles' "Superficial" was released as the single lead single commercially worldwide on January 14, 2012. The song was critically well received, with music critics praising its modern production and interesting lyrics. However, the reached moderate success peaking at number 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 21 in the UK Singles Chart. "On Top of the World" was released as the second single from the album on April 17, 2012. It received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised the lyrical content but criticized the lack of better production, stating it was very generic. The song was a commercial success, reaching number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, 8 on the UK Singles Chart, 3 in Australia and 4 in Canada. "Dignity" was the third single from the album. It was well received by the album's release, with critics praising its production and lyrics. The song reached the top 5 in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Ireland. It also reached the top 10 in the United States and the United Kingdom. "Bossy" was announced as the fourth and final single from the album with a release date of September 9, 2012. It was another commercial success, reaching the top 10 in Canada, Australia, Italy, and Germany. In the United States and the United Kingdom, it reached the top 5. The song has received critical acclaim for its fun-filled, club-friendly nature and is deemed one of the most memorable songs from the album. Critical reception The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received a score of 47, citing "mixed or average reviews". A highly positive review came from Kerri Mason of Billboard, who felt it was "packed with potential hits." Blender argued, "Woods fun TV persona doesn't help her singing one a lot. But she finds her way through the album with the help of big-name producers (from Dr. Luke to Max Martin)." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album two out of five stars, remarking it "doesn't have a soul, being full of potential hits that could be sung by any artist, turning out to be of the most no personality albums of the last 10 years." Uncut wrote, "Elisha Stevens should be nervous", while Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine criticized Woods' vocal performances, and compared "Bossy" to Haylie Ferguson's "Heartbeat". Alex Miller of NME discouraged music consumers with "even a passing interest in actually enjoying a record" from buying it. Track listing